Dear Mummy, sometimes it’s really hard to understand all the death and destruction in the world. It’s scary when it lands on your doorstep. From watching about it on the news in far away lands, to hearing the chatter in the school playground, then BOOM. You’re in the midst of a crisis, a global pandemic.

Covid_19 (or the Coronavirus) is a term that we utter daily, it’s crept into conversions, on adverts and TV shows and it seems there is no escaping it. It’s effected us all first hand. As soon as we went into the first lockdown our lives changed forever.

Being a kid living through Covid_19 is strange and can be hard at times. My whole world and little routine has been turned upside down. No school, no seeing friends and NO touching! Social distancing has now become the norm and a new way of living our lives in 2020 and the foreseeable future.

Originally, I wasn’t going to write a post about my experiences during the first lockdown. But then it occurred to me that it would be an important period of time to document, for the good and for the bad.

My mummy has been shielding since early March 2020 and I was sent home from school shortly after that. This is what happened during the first Lockdown back in 2020… Have a little look at my video

Homeschooling

We would be lying if we said this came easy. My folks aren’t classroom teachers, however they influence and teach me everyday in their own ways. We all have a new found respect for what teachers do after the First UK lockdown and my folks found it stressful at the beginning trying to keep up and restore routine in our chaotic days.

Thankfully things have settled down now and a home routine that we could stick to has been set and fully embedded. Of course we all still have the odd day when chaos rules supreme and it wouldn’t be fun with the odd unstructured day. *update*  the schools have now reopened and I’m back seeing friends and learning in a structured environment.

Back in 2020 my mummy picked topics for me to focus on each week. I had a lot of fun pretending to be a Viking! We also had the saving grace of reviewing some Osmo kits (check out my review) and this has helped me understand the fundamentals of coding and kept me occupied.

Before lockdown my mummy had the foresight to buy some educational booklets and I’m slowly working through them. It’s great that all my learning remain in these books, as I can revisit them and show them to my teachers.

Of course a lot of companies cottoned on that parents would be homeschooling more often and a website which has been great for supporting us has been Twinkl Resources.

We downloaded activity packs for VE Day 2020 which we commemorated in lockdown. I’ve been watching a lot of educational Tv programmes like BBC Bitesize and News Beat, along with fun episodes like Junior Bake Off, Pets Factor and Operation Ouch.

Exercise

My daddy kept me on my toes joining in with Joe Wicks, even though the novelty of doing exercise in the morning has worn off. I’ve also been watching my hero Steve Backshaw on Facebook LIVE and his Deadly 60 kids programmes.

We’re extremely lucky to have outdoor space and know others that don’t have the luxury of a garden. Even on our doorstep are green open spaces within the urban landscape. My one form of outdoor exercise has been walking a loop around our neighbourhood, past my school and up to Sainsbury’s, usually to do our shopping trips.

In 2020 we were fortunate to have the driest April on record and one of the hottest months of May. So being outside in the garden was my saviour in lockdown. For the rainy days my daddy invested in a treadmill. When my mummy was shielding and working from home she had the opportunity to do some light exercise on the treadmill and get her step count up and when they let me, I’d have a cheeky go too!

Deliveries and shopping 

DHL and Amazon must be having a field day with us as there has almost been a constant stream of items being sent for reviews on our Instagram feed. We can’t complain though as it’s lead to my cardboard obsession with no packaging going to waste in this household. It’s all up cycled or converted into one of my craft creations! It’s been strange having to queue up to get into the supermarkets and it seems that more shops are opening which will be interesting to see how they implement social distancing.

Zoom and TEAMS

I couldn’t wrap up this post without mentioned the communication tool of Zoom. It seems people of all ages have been thrust into a life online and we’ve chatted more to family members in Australia and Leeds, Ireland and Southampton than we would do normally. My folks have played quizzes (which they are rubbish at).

Supporting Businesses 

We’ve tried to support local businesses when possible and charity organisations. We’ve supported raising funds for NHS Charities by buying goods from In Good Company Leeds, Kindred, Friends of Joules. We joined in the Clapping for Carers in 2020.

Virtual Events

My folks have tried to raise the entertainment factor to another level by participating in Camp Bestival’s #CBSleepover. We had a stay at home festival in the back garden (check out my video diary) we camped out and toasted marshmallows.  For VE Day had a tea party in the garden, listened to music and learnt all about the history surrounding this event.

We’ve also joined in with the Good Play Guide StayHomeFest, 30 Days Wild and Puffin Books Virtual events. Phew! Thats a lot of things to keep me occupied!

Our Family Mindset

We’re trying to live in the moment, enjoying extra family time and getting to know each other better. Turning a negative situation into one that we will remember in some positive light. Building relationships and finding what we enjoy. Having some alone time, without truly being alone. Its really tested us, homeschooling and home working and we’re all like flat mates when it comes to down time.

Everyone’s experience will be different in this crisis and we are hyper aware of how some of our friends and family have been struggling to adapt. How some have lost loved ones and our hearts go out to each and everyone of them. As we write this over 128k deaths have now been recorded in the U.K. and it makes us sick to our stomachs. So to conclude, we hope you are safe, staying sane and looking after those that you love and people around you. The world is a different place to how I remember it back in February 2020. It’s ok to feel sad or down sometimes and always remember that your mummy, daddy and friends will be there to pick you up if you need them.

With a few days before the 14th June 2021 announcement on relaxing the restrictions in England on the 21st June, we are anxious that the Delta variant will delay the roadmap and develop into a third wave in 2021.

Stay safe everyone!

Love Bella x